Mountains and Scenery – Page 7

Gallery containing mountains and scenery (public domain) photos from the Canadian National Parks – Western Canada. The vast majority of mountains in Canada lie in the western provinces of British Columbia and Alberta and the Yukon Territory. Mountains can be found all over British Columbia while those in Alberta are mainly concentrated on the eastern side of the Canadian Rockies.

 

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses, seracs, and other distinguishing features. They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.

 

On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in the polar regions, but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges of every continent except Australia, and on a few high-latitude oceanic islands. Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth, supporting one third of the world’s population. Many glaciers store water during one season and release it later as meltwater, a water source that is especially important for plants, animals and human uses when other sources may be scant.